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In this brief research note, the author uses a sociohistoric lens to examine selected films that have employed the cholo, or Chicano gang member, stereotype. He finds that the cholo is a prevalent archetype of Mexican and Mexican American youth. The author argues that the depiction of the cholo as a hypermasculine, abject personage threatening the social order converges with how actual Latino youth are constructed in sociopolitical and media discourses-as both marginalized young men and migrants unworthy of membership in U.S. society.
Keywords: CHICANOS/LATINOS, FILM STEREOTYPES, CHOLOS, ABJECTION, BARRIOS
The traitor, the liar, the criminal with a good conscience, the shameless rapist, the killer who claims he is a savior. . . . Any crime, because it draws attention to the fragility of the law, is abject, but premeditated crime, cunning murder, hypocritical revenge are even more so because they heighten the display of such fragility. -Julia Kristeva, Powers of Horror (1982, p. 4)
Hollywood has a long history of employing and communicating racial stereotypes (Berg, 2002; Castro, 2006; Denzin, 2005; Dryer, 2008; Fregoso, 1993). These stereotypes "are false history, but conform to . . . the history of movies and movie stereotyping" (Berg, 2002, p. 19). They become part of "the national imaginary" as films circulate in movie theatres, and on network and cable television, DVDs, and videotapes (Denzin, p. 470). The repetition of stereotypes turns them into representations of those stereotyped (Berg).
For over a century now, "the motion-picture industry . . . has functioned as the primary transmitter of racist Latino/a images" (Castro, 2006, p. 89). The cholo, or Chicano gang member, is a prevalent archetypal figure used to depict Mexican and Mexican American men and youth on the screen. The "inarticulate, violent, and pathologically dangerous bandidos" of the silent film era who were depicted as cowardly, thieves, and kidnappers have morphed into the cholo (Berg, 2002, p. 69). As the cinematic descendent of the Mexican bandido, the cholo is of questionable character, with few redeeming qualities. Consequently, like his predecessor, the cholo' s "nature dooms him to come to a tragic end" (List, 1996, p. 33) and he becomes the barrio, abject persona.
The Hollywood depiction of Chicano youth as cholos must be understood with the broader socio...